Classified Tours
by Mirrored Illusions
Summary: The Scoobies are beamed up to the Hammond for a quick tour before the real tour of the SGC.


Timeline: BtVS: Post-Chosen & SGA/SG1: Post-Canon.  
Disclaimer: The Buffyverse belongs to Joss Whedon and the Stargate 'verse belongs to MGM.  
Author's Note: Written for Day 12 of the 2019 August Fic-A-Day.  
A/N: Follows 2017's 'A Face Full of Dust' and 2018's 'Hello Again'.

Everyone was excited and kept glancing at the clock on the wall, which appeared to very deliberately go even slower than normal. Every single tick seemed to take three times the usual time.

Buffy was standing in Giles' suite in semi-casual clothes, along with Willow, Faith, Xander, Dawn, and, of course, Giles himself. It had been decided that it would only be the core group who were allowed to get the tour of Stargate Command. To everyone's excitement, the military had upped the stakes a little by offering to bring them to the Mountain by way of one of their Daedalus-Class Warships using Asgard Transporters.

John had said, as an aside, that the latter was better known as beaming technology and that under normal circumstances they would not have gotten that kind of red carpet treatment. However, the brass was very interested in working with the IDC and Buffy, in particular, hence the special treatment.

Today they would get a tour of the SGC, tomorrow she would attend John's promotion ceremony from Lieutenant Colonel to full bird Colonel, and at some point, after that, she and Faith would get a tour of the not-so-lost city of Atlantis. Given her dislike of underground military bases and military personnel in general, she was most looking forward to a personal tour of the intergalactic city-ship. Which would hopefully not have a lot of military people on board.

The minute hand and the second hand of the wall clock finally reached twelve while the hour hand was pointing straight at eight. A beam of blinding white light was right on time and the next thing they saw was the inside of the George Hammond.

A tall, blonde woman in a green jumpsuit-like thing came forward immediately and gave them a polite welcome before introducing herself. "Welcome aboard the George Hammond, a Daedalus-Class Battlecruiser which is a class of deep space carrier and a part of the Tau'ri Fleet. I am Colonel Samantha Carter of the United States Air Force, and the captain of this ship."

Beside her, Buffy could feel Willow stand up straighter and trying not to bounce where she stood. And not for the first time she wondered if John had forwarded Willow's message to see if the woman was interested in a girlfriend.

To Colonel Carter's right stood John Sheppard, and she gave him a cheerful smile while the woman gave a more detailed description of her ship and how it had come to be. It didn't take long before her red-headed friend was asking all kinds of questions that went right over her head. The geek from John's team quickly inserted himself into the conversation and Buffy's eyes glazed over.

If nothing else happened, then Willow and her Colonel could science together. Since it seemed her friend was able to follow both of the scientists and ask intelligent questions, enough so that Carter lost the layman's terms and might as well have been speaking in Gobbeltygook for all the rest of them understood.

Buffy's attention wandered to the people on either side of their host. Cam was on Carter's left side, and lined up beside him were Teal'c, Daniel, and a woman with black hair in two low ponytails whom she guessed had to be the much-talked-about Vala. To John's right was a short woman with dark skin and a warrior's posture, which meant it had to be Teyla of the butt-kicking skills. Beside her was an incredibly tall man with dreadlocks, and on the far right was a tall blond man who was looking increasingly impatient.

"I see we've lost most of you, so I'll skip straight to the introductions." A few of them laughed, because duh. The tech was just a little above their normal paygrade. Given the looks of both of them teams with her they didn't understand it either.

"On my left is my former team, SG-1, led by Colonel Cameron Mitchell." He waved and gave a friendly hi. "Then we have Teal'c of the Free Jaffa Nation." The tall, black man inclined his head gracefully in greeting and in the process making the gold symbol on his forehead very visible to all of them. "Next we have Dr. Daniel Jackson, an archeologist, and linguist." He also smiled and said hello to the group. "And finally we have Vala Mal Doran." She gave a greeting as well but appeared to be a little disappointed by the two men in Buffy's group.

While they hadn't met, she had heard a lot about the woman from Daniel. And depending on the day or even the hour, it was either very positive or an overflow of exasperation. Still, after finally wearing the man down over several months, he had admitted they were a couple.

Colonel Carter turned to the right and began introducing the rest of the people. "This is Lt. Colonel John Sheppard, he is the military commander of the Atlantis Expedition and the leader of AR-1." He gave them all a charming smile as he stood up a little straighter. "Then we have Teyla Emmagan and Ronon Dex, both are Pegasus natives and long-term members of Col. Sheppard's team." Teyla gave them a friendly welcome but seemed to linger slightly on Buffy. Ronon just gave a simple nod.

"And finally, we have Dr. Rodney McKay, the Chief Science Officer on Atlantis and also a member of Col. Sheppard's team." Dr. McKay went on to babble about something she didn't even try to comprehend and was interrupted after a few minutes by John who reminded him Buffy's group was supposed to get a short tour of the ship before getting a proper tour of Stargate Command. In her peripheral view, she saw Cam checking out her intergalactic pen pal and got her theory confirmed.

Colonel Carter gave a fond but exasperated look at the man before taking over again. "We are currently on the deck of the George Hammond, but if you would all turn around you can get a good look at Earth."

They all turned obediently and promptly gasped as they saw their little blue marble spinning below them through the large window. It looked so small when seen from above, with just a few white, fluffy clouds dotted here and there.

"We are currently in low orbit above Earth while awaiting new orders, and occasionally taxi people from one place on Earth to another. Don't get used to it though, it's not why we're here."

Buffy took that as her clue and smiled. "My turn for introduction then. I'm Dr. Buffy Summers, this is Dr. Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris, Faith Lehane, my sister Dawn Summers, and Dr. Ruper Giles." Everyone in her group either smiled or said hi as their name was mentioned. "We all work for the IDC in various capacities, and before anyone asks; it's classified."

Buffy turned to the ship's captain, and asked: "Do we get a tour of the ship or are you just going to beam us down to the SGC?"

"We have time for a quick tour of the highlights, but nothing too detailed." They all agreed because they probably wouldn't get the chance again.

Colonel Carter then went on to explain how the ship was controlled, who flew it, who controlled weapons and so on. Willow, Dawn, and Xander were paying rapt attention. Giles looked a little overwhelmed, and Faith was eying Teal'c, Ronon, and Teyla. Buffy wasn't entirely certain if her scrutiny was because they were obviously aliens, because she wanted to spar with them, or if she was just looking for someone to get groiny with. It was Faith though, so it was entirely possible it was all three.

Personally, she wouldn't have minded some alone time with Ronon. He seemed to be her type; tall, broody, and a fighter. John had hinted there was a tragic backstory, but hadn't given any specifics. Maybe she could get John to arrange a sparring match away from prying eyes after everything was over...

Meanwhile, they all left the bridge in a more or less orderly fashion and moved on to the next room. Willow made sure she was walking beside her crush so she could pepper her with questions, which attracted McKay again. John and Cam both dropped back to speak with her, which she was thankful for as there was too much technobabble for her level of understanding.


End file.
